Alloy.



- UNI J STATES 1m ornion."

mien s. comma, or CLEVELAND, onr nssrenon TO THE coorun coMrAnY, or

CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION'OF OHIO. v

ALLOY. v

110 Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HUGH S. COOPER, a

citizen of the United. States, residing at Cleveland, in the county ofOuyahoga' and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Alloys, of

which the following is a specification.

lasting cutting edge and is suitable for This invention consists of analloy of zirconium and nickel or cobalt, with or without the addition ofanother metal, all'substantially as herein" shown and describedparticularly pointed out in the trical resistance, and when heated toabout 1150 0. there is formed on the outside a thin adherent coating ofoxid which prevents further oxidation of the metal.

. Where a small percentage of zirconium is used, for example two to tenper cent, and the balance nickel, the alloy takes-afine and knives,razors and other cutlery. In an alloy of zirconium and nickel comprisingeight per cent. to fifteen percent. of zirconium and the remaining percent.'nickel or cobalt, the melting point of the alloy is decreasedbelow that of nickel, or about 1400 (3., and

the electrical resistance increased compared with nickel, whlle anincrease in hardness and resistance to oxidation and corrosion is alsoeffected. Cutlery made of the alloy remains bright and clean even underthe action of acids found in such fruitsas lemons. oranges, etc, and,cutting tools or implements made therefrom are far superior to steeltools. The alloy "may be forged or worked atred heat, and is alsoapplicable ances, such as electric toasters, irons,

"and furnace wind1ngs. In produclng the to electrical uses. That is, itmay be used with advantage in thermo-electrie unctions,

and as a resistance element in heat ng applie Specification of LettersPatent. 4

the market at a stoves, a very low melting able for use withoutpurification.

7 Patented Apr. 3, 1917. Application filed October 30, 1916. Serial No.128,404.

Where the zirconium content is increased to say sixteen to thirty percent, the hardness of the alloy isgreatly increased. For example, withtwenty-five to thirty per cent. of zirconium and the balance of nickel,the alloy is of exceptional utility when formed into cutting tools. Forexample, a tool of.

this alloy easily cuts glass. The melting point and tensile strength islowered by increased amounts of zirconium, and the alloy cannot beworked by ordinary methods in volviug forging, drawing and rolling, but

may be cast to produce lathe or cutting tools i for working alloysteels, cast iron, drill rod and bronze. Even high speed steel is easilyI cut at a higher speed than with the tools now in use, and withoutappreciable wear or loss in temper of the cuttlng tool.

The high speed steels now used in making cutting tools contain iron,tungsten, a small amountof chromium or Vanadium, and more or lesscarbon. Care is necessary in grinding tools made of high speed steel toprevent burning of the tool, and loss in temper and 'dulling'of thecutting edge alsotakes place when operating the cutting tool at high Ispeed. My alloy is free from carbon and iron and I have found byexhaustive tests that it is impossible to burn a tool ,made of my alloy,elther when cutting at a high speed or in grinding the tool, and that nospecial care need be taken in grinding operations. I have also :foundthat the wear in grinding is only about one-tenth of that of the besthigh speed steel, which means a great saving in material, and thatthetool remains white notwithstanding grinding orhigh speed operations.Moreover, my alloy can be, manufactured at a lower cost than tungstensteels, as a zirconium ore with an: om'd content of about 73% isobtainable in much lower price than tungsten ores. I

With the zirconium content increased to sixteen to thirty per cent. thealloy is given I point, approximately 1150 0., and where 1t is necessaryto operate tools or dies of this alloyage at a red heat an additionalmetal may be incorporated to raise the melting point of the alloy to theproper degree necessary to insure hardness at higher temperatures. Forthis purpose a small amount of one or more of the-metals of the chromiumgroup may be advanta geously added, and in my experiments and testsmolybdenum appears togive the best,

results of any of the metals of the chromium group, and I have madealloys with various percentages of molybdenum up to thirtymember of thesame five per cent. with as high as twenty-five per cent. of zirconiumand the balance nickel or cobalt. For general use, however, only asufficient amount of molybdenum or its equivalent need be added toestablish themelting point of the alloy at about 1600 C. as I find thisto be sufliciently high to impart the necessary heat resisting qualitiesfor nearly every practical purpose, and at the same time low enough sothat the worn or used tools may be easily remelted and cast into bars ortools for further use. This alloy possesses sufficient tensile strengthso that it is possible to permit the tool to be used with a longoverhang. 'An alloy of this type is preferably composed of about ten percent. molybdenum, twenty-five per cent. zir- 0031111111, and sixty-fiveper cent. nickel or co a t.

Iron cannot be used to replace the nickel or cobalt in the alloy as thealloys of zirconium iron which IIhave made aretoo soft for the purposestated. Titanium (another oup as zirconium) may be alloyed with nickel,butthis substi- 'tute does not yield advantages comparable withzirconium, and nickel has proven superior to cobalt. v These alloys havethe peculiar property of self-hardening and are ready for use whencasted; that is, no treatment is necessary before use nor are theyimproved by any tempering process known to me.

.alloy takes a beautiful polish which is not .aflected bygases of theatmosphere,-nor corroded by al alis or cold concentrated nitric,sulfuric, hydrochloric, or. boiling sulfuric acids, or cold diluteacids. f

Chromium, uranium, or tungsten may be added to zirconium and nickel orcobalt and in this way make ternary and quarternary alloys of perhapsgreater hardness than the above, and I have made alloys containingzirconium-nickel and tungsten, with as high as twenty-five percent.tungsten, and also uranium but so far the increased cost has not beenovercome by a 'suificiently better alloy to justify the use of theseadded elements.

I have found it is possibleto produce these alloys by, various methods,-one being the alumino-thermic method, and a typical exelementcomposed ofan allo The mg amount of nickel, and zirconium, and

ample for the reaction in an alloy containing about twenty-five percent. zirconium may be.

' If the ore is substituted for the oxid of zirconium a correspondinglylarger amount must be used.

What I claim is: j

1. An alloy comprising zirconium and a preponderating amount of nickeland cobalt, the zirconium content being not less than about two percent. and not more than about forty per cent. of the composition.

2. A cutting tool composed of a self-hard- 8'0 cup 1101: thirty five percent. 0 the comthe properties of nickel or cobalt, and two to I thirtyper cent. of zirconium.

6. An alloy for cutting tools consisting of nickel and a metal havingtheproperties of zirconium or titanium.

7.-A-cutting tool composeolof an alloy containing two per cent. tothirty per cent. of zirconium and a metal having the properties ofnickel or cobalt. 1

8. An alloy containing eight per cent. to fifteen per cent; ofzirconium, with fifty or more per cent. of nickel.

9. A cuttingstool or electrical resistance containing a pre onderatingamount of nickel and eight to fteen per cent. of zirconium.

10. An a-lloy composed mainly of nickel not more than thirty-five percent. of zirconium, and one or more of the metals of the chromium group.

11. A self-hardening cutting tool composed of an alloy containing apreponderatnot more than thirty five per cent. of one or more of themetals of the chromium group. I

12. An alloy composed of nickel, zirconium, andten per cent. tothirty-five per cent. of one or more of the metals of the chromiumgroup.

13. An alloy composed of two per cent. to

thirty-five per cent. of zirconium, a metal one or more metals'of thechromium group, 14. An alloy composed of nickel and'zirhaving theproperties of nickelor cobalt, and 1 1 conium and one or more of themetals of the chromium group, in which the proportion of nickel exceedsthe zirconium and the proportion of zirconium exceeds the metal ormetals of the chromium group. A 15. An alloy composed of nickel andzirconium and mol bdenum, in which the proortion of. moly denum is lessthan twentyve per cent. and the zirconium sixteen to thirty er cent.

16. cutting tool composed of an alloy containing nickel, sixteen tothirty per cent. of zirconium, and ten to twenty-five per cent.

of molybdenum;

twenty-five per cent. ofvzirconium, and ten percent. of a metal havingthe property of mol bdenum.

S1gned at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga, and State of Ohio, this26th day of October, 1916.

' 1 HUGH S. COOPER.

of nickel, twenty-fi ve per A. cutting tool made of an alloy com-

